Printers need to jump off the burning bridge, they just need to know where to jump to – that at least was the view of EFI chief executive Guy Gecht, as the way forward for the industry came into clear focus at drupa today.
Top level drupa speakers were unanimous that with commercial print, in the Western world at least, set to stagnate at best, printing businesses that are not looking for new opportunity are in danger of crashing and burning.
Opening the debate at the drupa cube to a packed hall as printers sought direction, keynote speaker Frans Johansson told the throngs that innovation was the way forward, and said that failure must be embraced as part of the journey.
Citing Einstein who had multiple failures, and the producers of the worldwide app phenomenon Angry Birds who released 51 failed games before hitting the jackpot, Johansson says that not doing anything could lead to printers being a Nokia company, going from dominant to bit player in just a few years.
Guy Gecht says that EFI – now the most successful company in print – was close to finishing up at turn of the century as its primary business, Fiery for digital presses, was not actually needed anymore as the developers were launching their own systems.
However EFI deliberately re-invented itself, took a big jump, as is now reaping the rewards.
[Related: drupa vendors pile into digital packaging]
On the technology side, day two of drupa continued to dazzle, and saw both EFI and Screen join the race to digital packaging, EFI with the launch of its 100-foot-long Nozomi folding carton press, which can print an astounding 8100sqm of board an hour at 75 metres per minute with a 1.8m width and up to 3m length at 360x720dpi.
Nozomi has a new ink, AquaEndure, which is a combination water based and LED UV ink, not entirely different to HP’s latex ink, and which will be rolled out by EFI across multiple platforms.
Screen has embarked on an ambitious partnership with BHS, the world’s leading corrugator manufacturer, with the two companies developing a single pass corrugator printer finisher, which they say will take typical box production time down from five days to two, and make printed corrugated boxes cheaper as a result of knocking out various stages in the production process.
The 30 metre long unit will weigh around 50 tonnes and will print 300 metres of board per minute at 600x600dpi at up to 2.8m wide. It is set to be commercially available in 2020, with beta testing slated for the end of next year.
Screen also released an upgraded version of its Truepress Jet, the 520NX, which it says moves the printer beyond the transactional market. Screen has sold more than 1000 units of its 520, it says the latest version prints at 150 metres per minute at 600x1200dpi in mono, four or five colours.
Screen also launched a new B1 and new B2 platesetter, and an upgraded version of its W3200UV wide format printer, with a 25 per cent upswing in productivity.
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